The Green Lens

Chapter 1

As a psychic, Kusuo Saiki was gifted cursed with many supernatural powers. Said powers allowed him to, amongst other things and in no particular order, read minds, see the future, see the past, see far away, teleport, levitate, et caetera, et caetera.

However, almighty as these powers may sound, they did not allow him to foresee the dreadful landscape that currently laid before his eyes.

Good grief. What is happening here?

Indeed, as soon as Kusuo stepped through the entrance of PK Academy on this cursed Monday morning, he could not help but notice that most of the student body seemed to have unanimously elected overnight to add green-tinted glasses identical to his own to their already very green school uniform. But Kusuo had not received any notice about any such uniform change.

Which meant that something else must be afoot.

"Oh, Saiki!" his classmate Kaidou called as he ran up to him, newly purchased green glasses sliding down his nose. "So you watched it too, right? Tohru Mugami's new hit drama, The Green Lens !"

If Kusuo had been a regular high schooler, he probably would have felt the need to ask a few follow-up questions to this statement, such as "what the hell are you talking about?", or "do I look like a drama fanboy to you?", or "for the love of God, if you are going to wear glasses, at least get some with anti-slip nose pads, will you?".

However, as it turned out, Kusuo was a psychic, so a simple peek inside Kaidou's mind was usually enough to find the answer to his questions without going through the hassle of conversation.

The Green Lens was, as Kaidou pointed out earlier, a new television show starring the popular actor Tohru Mugami, or, as he is better known to Kusuo and probably to you as well, esteemed reader, the class's self-proclaimed perfect pretty girl Kokomi Teruhashi's elder brother, Makoto Teruhashi.

Through Kusuo's unswitchoffable telepathy, Kaidou's mind unsolicitedly supplied a full trailer for this new drama, conveniently complete with both synopsis and illustrating footage.

In a world where transparent glasses turn people mad...

"Kyaaah! The whole accounting department has turned mad!" screamed an office lady as she ran away from a horde of bespectacled men in suits moving like zombies.

One man is spared from the madness...

"Hey, I'm wearing these green-tinted glasses and I'm not affected by this weird disease turning people with glasses mad," Tohru Mugami's character mused as he stroked his chin, his expression hidden behind glasses flashing green. "Could it be because of..."

The Green Lens! Now on Channel Psy!

...

...

Good grief. No pun intended, but who green-lit this show?

"Episode one aired last Friday and it was such an instant hit that everyone immediately got on the green glasses hype train!" Kaidou continued excitedly as he pushed his forever-slipping glasses up his nose again. "I tried to get a pair that had anti-slip nose pads, but they had run out of the model already by the time I got to the shop..."

I see. So that's what happened.

"But I'm so happy that you're a Mugami fan too, Saiki! You don't have to hide it, you wearing this particular shade of green lenses says it all!"

...?

What did he mean? He had always worn the exact same pair of green glasses. Ever since that day six years ago when he had rightfully accidentally turned his own father into stone, he had been wearing his loyal specs in order to protect other living life forms from his medusa stare. But Kaidou seemed to have magically forgotten about that obvious feature of his character design... Did this mean that the brainwashing power of televised drama was even stronger than his true-to-God mind control abilities? Good grief.